Mo shares his opinions about the secret White House meeting and message it sends. CIR is dead. Thoughts?
Read the full story »Coming out of the Shadows – A How To Guide
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Easy to Medium to Very Difficult
Time:
10 minutes-2 hours
“Brothers and Sisters, you must come out! come out to your parents, come out to your friends, if indeed they are your friends, come out to your neighbors, come out to your fellow workers. Once and for all, let’s break down the myth and destroy the lies and distortions. For your sake, for their sake. For the sake of all the youngsters who’ve been scared by the votes from Dade to Eugene. On the Statue of Liberty it says ‘ Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free.’ In the Declaration of Independence it is written, ‘All men are created equal and endowed with certain unalienable rights.’ For Mr. Briggs and Mrs. Bryant and all the bigots out there, no matter how hard you try, you can never erase those words from the Declaration of Independence! No matter how hard you try you can never chip those words from the base of the Statue of Liberty! That is where America is!”
-Harvey Milk
Congratulations! You have decided to come out of the shadows about your undocumented status. Perhaps you have finally decided to tell your friends why you haven’t signed up for your drivers’ ed. class or why you still don’t drive to school. Maybe, you will come out to your guidance counselor, who has asked you repeatedly to turn in your college application, but you were too afraid to tell him/her that you don’t have a social security number and that you still don’t know how you will pay for college without financial aid.
Please remember you are not alone. You are part of a large community of courageous undocumented youth who have decided to come out of the shadows about our immigration status. We live every day in fear and we are tired of it. We want to be able to talk about our lives and our stories without fearing persecution or deportation. We are not free to travel, go to school, work, live, but we refuse to be helpless. In the same way the LGBTQ community has historically come out, undocumented youth, some of whom are also part of the LGBTQ community, have decided to speak openly about their status. Your courage will open the way to having even more conversations about your immigration status. Sharing your stories will allow us, as a movement of undocumented youth, to grow, as we continue to learn to accept ourselves. By being more open we will begin replacing fear with courage and, ultimately, be united in our demands for change. You will be surprised how little other people know about the realities of being undocumented. People who know someone who is gay or lesbian are more likely to support equal rights for all gay and lesbian people- the same follows for people who know someone who is undocumented. Also note, if you must also confront intersecting oppressions (i.e. Gender, Race, Class, Sexual orientation), coming out about your status is one of the many hurdles for liberation.
National Coming Out Day
March 10th is National Coming Out Day. In Chicago, the Immigrant Youth Justice League will be holding a rally and a march to launch a week-long “coming out” of undocumented youth across the country. In other cities and towns, students are coming out to their friends on a much smaller scale. Whether big or small, consider participating in the National Coming Out Day and weeks by coming out!
Before you get started:
If you are nervous about coming out:
Include Know Your Rights Info here.
How to Participate in the Coming Out Week:
Your Commitment:
Look at the list below and determine your level of participation. Every bit helps moves us closer to passing the DREAM Act!
“I am a Dreamer”
Share your story with anyone (friends, family that do not know, a teacher, etc.) and get at least 10 petition signatures
“Shout It Out”
Get 25 petition signatures (or text) & share you story with us (written or video)
“We Are Here, Get Used to It”
Get 50 petition signatures (or text) & share you story with us (written or video) & hold a coming out party
“Loud and Proud”
Get 75 petition signatures (or text) & share you story with us (written or video) & hold a coming out event w/ press coverage
“Out of the Closets and into the Streets”
Get 100 petition signatures (or text) & get 5 people to share their story with us (written or video) & hold a coming out event w/ press coverage
Coming out is a very important and empowering time in a persons life. By coming out of the shadows you’re finally shedding some light on this issue that has been affecting others for years. Remember that there’s other youth out there, like yourself, that are too scared to come out. By taking the first step many more will find the courage they need to speak out as well!
Whatever you decide to do….Be creative and Be Brave!
Popularity: 29% [?]
FYI this is an opinion piece from Mohammad and does not represent any one organization’s views.
That seems to be the question on a lot of our minds. Obama met yesterday with a team of self appointed advocates for immigration reform. The meeting we are told by some of the advocates went great, they say Obama came out swinging for them, telling them he understood immigration reform to be a priority and it is a priority for him.
This excited us, immigration reform has a chance despite Obama only mentioning a sentence on it in his State of the Union speech.
Then a few hours later we started to hear more and more of the story. We heard from the administration itself. Their story goes against everything we are told. An article from The Hill, clearly titled “Obama won’t promise immigration reform”, says:
Obama met with several activists at the White House on Thursday and told one participant he would like to see bipartisan support to get something done, but he would not promise to pursue legislation this year.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs indicated that while immigration and a new comprehensive energy bill are important to Obama, they are not the president’s focus in this election year.
So what really happened at this White House meeting? Are we being led astray by people who think we do not know any better?
It seems to me to be the same old politics, both from Obama and our advocates. Who are they really working for here and when are we going to take this to the next level and actually push for legislation that has a chance at passing like AGJobs, the Dream Act, UAFA, Child Citizenship Protection Act?
In 2007 we were fed the same line, wait. Wait. Wait. Dream will be given a chance. As soon as other legislation failed our, then so called allies, left us in the dust. Are we setting ourselves up for the same failure again this year? We need to be critical about these things.
It is clear as day. CIR is dead. #cirisdead. <insert another language>. If advocates will not face the reality of this and want to drag us into the ground with them then they have another thing coming.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Undocumented youth all over this country will finally come out the shadows and lay claim to their own futures. No longer will we let ourselves be intimidated, scared and ashamed. We have worked long and hard, we have risen to meet every challenge and we have made this country a better place for all. And yet, we are relegated to live in fear. So let us come out and end this fear.
UCLA has a reputation for producing proud, enthusiastic DREAMers. They’ve even got their own page at DREAMActivist for sharing their incredible stories.
Their enthusiasm has created many willing allies among not only other students but administrators …
An ally shares her story about why she cares, what is your story? Share it with us at story@dreamactivist.org or send us a video clip!
My name is Kemi, and I want to recruit you. Why? Because I am undocumented, and this battle should not be mine to fight alone.
Are your scared, mystified, perplexed, confused and just downright troubled by our call to “come out?”
Why should undocumented immigrants come out and more importantly, be out? Prerna lays it down.
My experience as an undocumented youth has taught me that hope is most necessary for us to achieve our dream. Martin Luther King Jr. once said,” If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream.” When no one else believed in me I had to believe in myself. When no one else had hope I learned that hope had to be created within.
On March 10th, undocumented youth all over this country will come out the shadows about their immigration status. The NYSYLC will be featuring the coming out stories of our members every day.
Undocumented Chicago youth are leading United We Dream Network’s “Coming Out” actions. Are you ready to come out?
It’s always nice to hear from our supporters on the ground.
Emily took the time to write and send this to us, and we encourage you to do the same!
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
You have been tagged …
Update your profile page with this image, if you are out enough then also change your status to “My name is _____ and I am Undocumented”
Undocumented youth all over this country will finally come out the shadows and lay claim to their own futures. No longer will we let ourselves be intimidated, scared and ashamed. We have worked long and hard, we have risen to meet every challenge and we have made this country a better place for all. And yet, we are relegated to live in fear. So let us come out and end this fear.
